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Why No Political Party Wants Me

I am conservative. I am liberal. This is why no one wants me. I can't chant for team. I can't pull for party. I can't vote for one side. This means I have to think carefully about each candidate. It also means the negative ads, posts, commercials, and conversation get personal. Because the party you insult - is really my party .... at least on some of the big, important issues.

I have over 900 Facebook friends. Lately, I force myself to laugh when I read my newsfeed, mostly to keep from crying. So many political posts .....if I took the insulting posts seriously, I'd have to defriend some of these people. No post has ever swayed me in a direction or tempted me to change my vote. I wonder how many other Facebookers are like me.

Liberal's don't want me because I am unequivocally pro-life.
I believe the most precious thing on earth is life, and the most precious thing about life is love. Abortion is ending a potential life. Nobody has the right to do that. It doesn't infringe on a woman's right to choose. She can choose not to get pregnant...and even on the rare occasion the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest, no mother owns the life of her child - inside or outside of the womb. No doctor or scientist can accurately prove when life begins, therefore, we must give life - which is the ultimate earthly gift - the benefit of the doubt. We must choose to protect it.

I've heard every argument put forth about why abortion should be a legal option, but they all spiral down to the woman's right to choose. I am a woman who has been the victim of rape, been a victim of incest, had two crisis pregnancies - one I chose to end in abortion and the other I chose to give birth of a child. I know this issue intimately. When you become pregnant, you become a mother. No mother should choose to end any life through voluntary abortion. Pick another way. Adoption is an option and there are thousands of childless couples who will pay all expenses and provide wonderful homes. There should be no shame in choosing life.

Christian / Catholic schools should also get a grip here. If a pregnant student has opted not to legally exercise her right (even as a minor) to go to any Planned Parenthood clinic and have minor surgery without parental consent thus ending the life of her child, don't shun her from the school community. Affirm her choice for life. Pregnancy is not "catchy" and all the girls won't rush out and get pregnant when they see a pregnant student walking the halls. Any school that embraces the pro-life cause, then shuns the pregnant student should be defunded.

Conservatives don't want me because I am against the death penalty.
Seems kind of silly to me to have these two issues on the opposite side of the party lines, but still ... if we believe all life is precious, then we shouldn't become life takers. Even the most loathsome deviant committing the most horrendous crime has something we are not authorized to take - life.

Consider John Couey who raped 9 year old Jessica Lunsford and buried her alive in two garbage bags. When Jessica's body was recovered, her lifeless little corpse was still clutching her stuffed purple dolphin. Could we identify a more despicable criminal? Did the death penalty in Florida deter Couey from committing such a crime? I feel no sympathy for Couey and believe he should never see the light of day. He should lose most of his civil rights. But to kill him is to give in to our anger which naturally surfaces when we are so unjustly wronged, and it is not the right choice. This is same primitive instinct that lynch mobs and vigil anti groups give in to. We should not choose death, because there are other choices, and we should not choose to become takers of life ... even the poor miserable life of a criminal like Couey.

The legalization of capital punishment also allows for innocent people to be killed. When levying a sentence so final - the ultimate earthly destruction - how can we take a chance on getting it wrong even once? The problem is that our penal and justice system is screwed up, prisons are overcrowded, they don't reform inmates, gangs take control, free prisoners repeatedly offend. So to combat our dissatisfaction with a broken system, we choose this final and brutal option that quiets down the masses who area calling for blood. Why not work on fixing the system?

A note to Christians (and this includes you, Mr. Bush) ... Jesus was real clear about this. He said, "turn the other cheek." The gospels are full of references where Christ directs followers to avoid killing anyone ever. The gospels also show us Jesus' disgust over bloodthirsty crowds and governments that wield their power and control over the masses via the death sentence. Jesus Christ is the poster child for disallowing the death penalty. He was the most famous innocent man legally put to death.

Thou Shalt Not Killis not #6 of the Ten Suggestions, or the Ten Commandments as we interpret their meaning.

Liberals don't want me because I think government should stay out of business
Over-regulation and government involvement stifles business growth. Having been a business owner for 20 years I felt this first hand. Now working with businesses I still see it. When business grows, BIG business also grows. The have-nots get furious about all the wealth the haves have generated. I think we should that go and let business grow. There will always be rich and poor among us. Growing a business is the natural outcome of a free society encouraging creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship. Things like the automobile, steam engine, light bulb, vaccines, computer chip were created in this environment where business was free to grow. Some regulation is necessary, but too much government involvement chokes creativity and stalls a system that is good for our communities.

Conservatives don't want me because I believe in affordable access to excellent health care for every person.
Many poor middle class people don't have access to health care because of the exorbitant price. But this problem of having no health care coverage when the services are available bleeds into all levels of the community. Consider my brother-in-law David. He carried his own health insurance for himself and his family. His kidneys failed. He was able to get a transplant. But the insurance companies only cover the anti-rejection drugs for three years. Then it becomes his burden to pay the $1500 monthly cost for these specific drugs. Without the drugs he WILL reject his kidney and be back on dialysis. Luckily David is a veteran and the VA helped him out. For those who are not veterans, there are no available choices.

If life is what we value above all else, how can we support a system that allows access to health care to some people - but not all people? Why should this patient get the good drugs for $10 and that patient get no drugs because he can't afford the $70 price tag? It makes no sense. The system is broken and should be fixed. If that means everyone pays more taxes, so be it.

Conservatives don't want me because I support Gay Marriage
I don't know a single person who has intimately known (brother, sister, child, parent, close friend) a gay person who wouldn't agree that being gay is something one is - not something one becomes. One doesn't choose to be gay. A gay person can't influence your child, your partner, or your friend to turn gay. So what is the big deal? If two people love each other and want to move through this life together, committed in love, aren't we all better off for having that relationship around us? And the nuclear family is one that lives together, loves each other and moves as a unit. Sometimes there are two parents, sometimes there's one, sometimes extended families live together. One size doesn't fit all under the nuclear family title. My family is a combined family. Does that make it less of a family than the traditional two-parents-who-have-always-been-married-to-each-other-and-parent-only-their-biological-children families? What does your family look like?

And for the Christians .... you might consider being more like Jesus and think in the broad terms of love and acceptance rather than the narrow terms of judgment and control. Remember that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. God is neither male or female ... and yet God must be both male and female. God is far greater than we can understand or imagine. We can't place him / her in a tidy box that gives us a rationale for every mystery. What does it hurt if two gay people get married? Do you fear gayness will catch on and more people will turn gay? Nonsense. Who would choose to be gay and suffer being on the outside of society's norm, and be marginalized in his or her own community?

Sometimes, when we can't wrap our minds around something, we just have to do the loving thing.

So when there's a political party platform that values and protects all life, accepts differences in sexual orientation, believes in providing equal opportunity for access to health care, and doesn't' support the over-regulating of business, I'll join it, cheer it on, wave the flag and go to the rallies. For now, I can't vote along party lines. I tire of the party agendas. When an insult is flung, it hits me because I support high profile issues on both sides.

Excellent post Mindie! I don't fit into a Democratic or Republican mold either. I do my research, I listen, and I make my own decisions. Bravo for this and for having your own mind. It's crucial these days.